The Patent Dragon's Zone of Soul Retraction

In Today's Episode... A new threat enters the world of The Challenger and the people of "Fortain's World". Three hundred lives are in danger - but from what...?

Release Notes... Posting today and tomorrow - the plan is to post at least one "step" along the road to WORLDS COLLIDE per month.

Technology News... My current laptop absolutely KNOWS its replacement is on the way. It started up all right this morning, but on restarting after lunch... well, no joy. This shouldn't impact on my gathering of essential resources for starting up the new machine, which I started last night, but I get the unpleasant feeling I might have a download of the Ultima Online client on the lappy... grrrrrr.

In Today's Episode... Mane-of-Night tries to "find her feet" again - and another unfortunate soul learns, to their cost, not to underestimate "The Maharani of At'Hundeh"...

Meanwhile, at To Be Continued: Unlocking The Impossible, pieces of a bigger puzzle are starting to fall into place...

Release Notes... 1) Double story post!
2) Here we go - a new season for Mane-of-Night, and WORLDS COLLIDE starts to gather some steam. Don't panic - I'm not going all "Marvel", and pumping out "event" after "event". Really.

No, really.

Development News... In the meantime, TDD-703 Errands Of Mercy gains another cast member as the nature of the threat becomes clearer - and I tap more directly into recent personal events for inspiration. Hey, you little bastards - you're famous...

Development News... Errrr, nope - no finished chapter. Things were a little complicated today, and a spark of inspiration struck about the proposed Nightwind and Twilight story, so I broke ground on that at lunchtime. This could touch on a little bit of forgotten Yafornian history, and if you read the recent interlude, in particular Chapter 2, you might have the slightest hint of what I'm talking about...

I'm not going to cut the current Big Darkhawk Story loose again, no sir. That's not the plan. It is, however, nice to have something else to fall back on when The Main Event doesn't quite click.

Elsewhat... There isn't any just yet. Let me grab my dinner, and I'll see what I can come up with.

Yesterday, I posted the latest offering via TO BE CONTINUED, and damn did it feel GOOD. It was quite literally "back to the old days", writing directly into the New Entry window - "winging it", you could say - and even though it was a short introductory piece for an important character for the future, without spell checking facilities or anything like that, I came away from the whole thing feeling really pleased, and even refreshed.

This is how it used to be; that's how you got a couple of hundred story posts a year, not forty or so. The posts were shorter, yes, but oh gods, they flowed like wine around a hobo fire...! (please excuse my attempt at a Seasick Steve-ism ;) )

Change of Plan: Think I'll post the current story when it's done - maybe twelve chapters, long format - then complete the Season as "The Pandemonicum Symphony", in more manageable chunks, as and when the inspiration hits, ideally in "Writing Hour". Yeah, that'll suit me fine. It may take twice as many chapters, but they'll take a whole lot less time to produce. A more streamlined operation overall.

That doesn't mean I'll be discard my entire operation as it currently is - the netbook is just too damn useful, and if I can write half a "new format" chapter at lunchtime then that can only help push things forward. If there's no inspiration on tap at the time, I can still do some work on Mission 101: Task 46...

46 - Continue and complete "The Archive Project"

- I pretty much have everything I need on there.

Move News... I am seriously, seriously thinking of a major change of plan, switching the two available rooms around - if I'm at last going to be able to divide up bedroom and workspace (you really don't want to see it as it is now, oh my brothers), it makes sense to maximise the space where it's really needed, and the current "office" has plenty of room for a bed, wardrobes, all that's necessary, whilst the current "bedroom" is more square, allowing more floor-space, and it has double the number of power-points. That space under the slope of the roof is just perfect for a computer station...

Only real negative: the current "bedroom" has a central heating radiator. - the current "office" does not. Nothing a big floofy bedspread-type thing and a portable heater can't fix. I can see it now - computer under the slope-ceiling, two-seater sofa/chaise in the corner by the window, long-boxes and "costume" wardrobe at the other end, walls replete with art, shelves and hangables... guess I should start pricing furniture, and sourcing small shelves and long wall-hooks - kinda coat-hook things. It'll all make perfect sense when it's all in place, believe me...

This whole moving thing stopped being interesting, and started being FUN. I need to embrace change, and that's just what this is letting me do.

Sweeeet.

Development News... It's official: MoN-204 "Mane-of-Night And The Hunter's Game" is "in the can". Yep, all nine chapters are done at last! Those two epilogues may need to become actual full chapters, but there's still time to see to that.

ThePatentDragon.com Latest... I now have a blog at core.thepatentdragon.com up and running. I'm not 100% satisfied - I need to lose the underlined links, for a start, and those screwy blockquotes are annoying (I had to recode them by hand for To Be Continued) - but things are looking good.

Now... content. Yeah, needing some work done on that...

Meanwhile Every once in a while, this line of work throws up a scary moment. I won't go into details - let's just say we had something of a medical emergency, but thankfully we got the all-clear fairly quickly. Tomorrow, a morning session, and we are done - I get an afternoon off, then it's back to New Work. Yeah Dave, yeah Nick - I'm no-one's bitch...

Yup, I'm off again. Tomorrow, I'll be talking to my boss about my pay situation - and I hope I'll not need to go on strike again. Ever.

Meanwhile, I've completed the semi-mammoth task of "link-wrangling" the Glitterthorn profile at To Be Continued. I chose to remove all those instances where "The Big G" is merely mentioned, and halved the amount of work for the final update. Now that that is done, I can concentrate on the next story, MoN-204 "Mane-of-Night And The Day At The Races". That shouldn't take too long, or require an awful lot of creative energy, as it has a fairly "low-impact" storyline - which can't be said for almost everything else that's on the cards for the rest of the year...

In The News... Oh, here it comes - the smack in the mouth for the unemployed in this general election. So anyone unemployed over two years will have to "take the job they're offered, or lose their benefits", will they? I'm thinking that the people writing this crap do not realise that the Jobcentre does not offer you a job - they do a Jobsearch, and offer you information on a vacancy, which is not a "job offer". Actually being offered or given a job at the "Jobcentre" would make a HUGE amount of difference, but that simply Does. Not. Happen.

Fix it. If it's going to be "a future fair for all", remember the meaning of the word "all".

/ rant

Just a one day strike, mind...

Development News... Not writing just yet, but last night I did post the complete "character sheet" for The Traveller to To Be Continued, and I am presently pulling together the appearances list for Glitterthorn. Plenty of work to do!

Meanwhile... Recovering from giving a toe a solid whack last night- was afraid I'd broken it, but I think I've been lucky.

Maybe more later...

...oh, hold on, how about this? It doesn't look like Clash Of The Titans will be getting onto the big screen at my local cinema, and there's still no sign of Kick Ass, so an out-of-town "double-header" may just be in order. Haven't done that for quite a while. Yeah, that works - IF I GET PAID.

Today, On The "To Be Continued..." Channel... It's final chapter time for "Comes... THE CHALLENGER!", and The Challenger goes public - but not entirely public, for there are things the rest of the population of "Fortain's World" are not ready to know...

...and there are things even our hero does not know. Important things, that will shape the future.

Development News... One story done - another continues as, the Mane-of-Night "Meanwhile" passes its halfway point, fisning off one new character's introduction. I might just have that done, and a second character cameo'd, by the end of tomorrow, should the fates allow. If I do, there's those data-files to work on, and some thought to apply to the next story on the list...

Elsewhat... It'd sure be nice to be paid sometime. Soon, ideally. REALLY soon, in fact.

Today, at "To Be Continued..." The post-Zeta-Men adventures of Lee Croxley continue, in the latest chapter of "Comes... THE CHALLENGER!", and our young hero starts to put his plans into effect, and the extent of Durah Fortain's facilities becomes a bit clearer...

Release Notes... and that takes us to half-way (see below)! Pity the blockquotes are screwing around - some rethinking and CSS-juggling may be required...

Development News... As so, three chapters become four. Once again, this story has outgrown its boundaries - and thankfully, today's lunchtime writing session generated about four screens of new story; enough for half a chapter. I'll be working to finish that tonight - WITHOUT FAIL.

Elsewhat... Not a great start to the day - the cold wind down by the sea could have cut through steel, I'm sure. It didn't get any better when I found out that all the work I did yesterday was in vain (wrong data, wrong place), and my attempts to "drown my sorrows" ran aground when 1) I didn't have enough change on me for the sweetie machine, and 2) when I did find the money, I ended up keying in the code for THE WRONG ITEM. Arrrrgggghhhh...!

I finished early, thankful that, at least, my new contract is in the boss's hands. Definitely taking Friday off (unpaid).

I can see myself at the pictures on Saturday (Clash Of The Titans 3D?) with a big Easter egg. Been promising myself one for ages.

To Be Continued... is go...!

Sort of.

I've finally managed to get the infrastructure (is that the right word?) in place, and everything appears to be just about ready for the first story post. This week, I'll be working on "character sheets" to include in this set-up - oh, and finishing the first story to post there, if I don't get it finished off today.

More as things develop.

Update! Working on character sheets now. These DO NOT count as the references sheets for one of my Mission 101 tasks

48 - Do proper reference sheets for at least six of my characters (0/6)

in case anyone is wondering - but if anyone doing a commission for me, as in

32 - Get at least one piece of commissioned art

finds them useful, that's cool.